Pearl millet in the field

Finger millet in the field

Ripe head of proso millet

A closeup of kodo millet with husk, also known as varagu millet in the Deccan Plateau of India

Millet grains

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult production environments such as those at risk of drought. They have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years.^[1]

Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. They grow in harsh environments where other crops do not grow well. Improvements in production, availability, nutritional content, storage and utilization technology for millets may significantly contribute to the household food security and nutrition of the inhabitants of these areas.

The most popular staple amongst millets is the pearl millet. India is the world's largest producer of millets. In the 1970s, all of the millet crops harvested in India were used as food staple. By 2000s, the annual millets production had increased in India, yet per capita consumption of millets had dropped by between 50% to 75% in different regions of the country. As of 2005, the majority of millets produced in India is being used for alternative applications such as livestock fodder and alcohol production.^[2]

Millets most likely originated in tropical western Africa, as that is where the greatest number of both wild and cultivated forms exist.^[3]

Description[link]

Pearl millet and finger millet are the two most popular forms of millets.

The height of the pearl millet plant may range from 0.5 to 4 meters. The millet grain can be nearly white, pale yellow, brown, grey, slate blue or purple. The ovoid grains of pearl millet are about 3 to 4 mm long, much larger than those of other millets. The seeds usually weigh between 2.5 and 14 grams, with a typical mean of 8 grams. The size of the pearl millet kernel is about one-third that of sorghum. The relative proportion of germ to endosperm is higher in pearl millet than in sorghum.

The height of finger millet plant ranges from 40 cm to 1 meter, with the spike length ranging from 3 to 13 cm. The color of finger millet grains may vary from white through orange-red, deep brown, purple, to almost black. The grains are smaller than those of pearl millet. The typical mean weight of finger millet seed is about 2.6 grams.^[3]

Millet varieties[link]

The millets include species in several genera, mostly in the subfamily Panicoideae, of the grass family Poaceae. The exceptions, finger millet and teff, are in the subfamily Chloridoideae. The most widely cultivated species in order of worldwide production^[4] are:

1. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) (Also known as bajra in India)
2. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica)
3. Proso millet, common millet, broom corn millet, hog millet or white millet (Panicum miliaceum)
4. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) (Also known as ragi, nachani or mandwa in India)

Minor millets include:

• Indian barnyard millet or sawa millet (Echinochloa frumentacea)
• Japanese barnyard millet (Echinochloa esculenta)
• Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum)
• Little millet (Panicum sumatrense)
• Guinea millet (Brachiaria deflexa = Urochloa deflexa)
• Browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa = Brachiaria ramosa = Panicum ramosum)

Teff (Eragrostis tef) and fonio (Digitaria exilis) are also often called millets, as more rarely are sorghum (Sorghum spp.) and Job's tears (Coix lacrima-jobi).

History[link]

Fields of finger millet in the Annapurna region of Nepal

Specialized archaeologists called palaeoethnobotanists, relying on data such as the relative abundance of charred grains found in archaeological sites, hypothesize that the cultivation of millets was of greater prevalence in prehistory than rice,^[5] especially in northern China and Korea. Millets, rather than rice, formed important parts of the prehistoric diet in Indian, Chinese Neolithic and Korean Mumun societies. Broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet were important crops beginning in the Early Neolithic of China. For example, some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at Cishan (north) and Hemudu (south). Cishan dates for common millet husk phytoliths and biomolecular components have been identified around 8300–6700 BC in storage pits along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation.^[1] Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 6500 BC.^[1] A 4,000-year-old well-preserved bowl containing well-preserved noodles made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet was found at the Lajia archaeological site in China.^[6]

Palaeoethnobotanists have found evidence of the cultivation of millet in the Korean Peninsula dating to the Middle Jeulmun pottery period (c. 3500–2000 BC) (Crawford 1992; Crawford and Lee 2003). Millet continued to be an important element in the intensive, multicropping agriculture of the Mumun pottery period (c. 1500–300 BC) in Korea (Crawford and Lee 2003). Millets and their wild ancestors, such as barnyard grass and panic grass, were also cultivated in Japan during the Jōmon period some time after 4000 BC (Crawford 1983, 1992).

Millet made its way from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 5000 BC.^[7] The cultivation of common millet as the earliest dry crop in East Asia has been attributed to its resistance to drought,^[1] and this has been suggested to have aided its spread.^[7]

Major research on millets is carried out by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Andhra Pradesh, India, and by the USDA-ARS at Tifton, Georgia, USA.

Production[link]

Worldwide millet production

Millet output in 2005

Pearl millet is one of the two major crops in the semiarid, impoverished, less fertile agriculture regions of Africa and southeast Asia.^[8] Millets are not only adapted to poor, droughty, and infertile soils, but they are also more reliable under these conditions than most other grain crops. This has, in part, made millet production popular, particularly in countries surrounding the Sahara Desert in western Africa.

Millets, however, do respond to high fertility and moisture. On a per hectare basis, millet grain produced per hectare can be two to four times higher with use of proper irrigation and sustainable soil supplements. Improved breeds of millets improve their disease resistance and can significantly enhance farm yield productivity. There has been a virtuous cycle of cooperation between poor countries to improve millet yields. For example, 'Okashana 1', a variety developed in India from a natural-growing millet variety in Burkina Faso, doubled yields. This breed was selected for trials in Zimbabwe. From there it was taken to Namibia, where it was released in 1990 and enthusiastically adopted by farmers. Okashana 1 grew to become the most popular variety in Namibia, the only non-Sahelian country where pearl millet - locally known as mahangu - is the dominant food staple for consumers. 'Okashana 1' was then introduced to Chad. The breed has significantly enhanced yields in Mauritania and Benin.^[9]

India is the world's leading producer of millet. However, India now uses majority of its millet harvest as fodder and for poultry feed applications. Indian organizations are discussing ways to increase millets use as food to encourage more production; however, they admit consumer prefers taste of other grains over millet.^[10]

In 2010, the average yield of millet crops worldwide was 0.83 tonnes per hectare. The most productive millet farms in the world were in France, with a nationwide average yield of 3.3 tonnes per hectare in 2010.^[11]

Top millet producers — 2009
Country	Production (Tonnes)	Footnote
India	8,810,000
Nigeria	4,884,890
Niger	2,677,860
Mali	1,390,410
China	1,225,579
Burkina Faso	970,927
Uganda	841,000
Senegal	810,121
Chad	708,695	Im
Sudan	630,000
Ethiopia	560,030
World	26,706,849	A
No symbol = official figure, Im = FAO data based on imputation methodology, A = May include official, semiofficial or estimated data Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Division

Current uses[link]

Awaokoshi, candied millet puffs, are a specialty of Osaka, Japan. This millet confection tradition began when it was presented to Sugawara no Michizane when he stopped by at Naniwa during the early Heian period, about a 1000 years ago.

Tongba - a millet-based alcoholic brew found in the far eastern mountainous region of Nepal and Sikkim, India.

As a food source[link]

Millets are major food sources in arid and semiarid regions of the world, and feature in the traditional cuisine of many others. In western India, sorghum (called jowar, jwaarie or jondhahlaa in Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi languages, respectively, or mutthaari or kora in Malayalam), has been commonly used with millet flour (called bajari in western India) for hundreds of years to make the local staple, hand rolled (that is, without a rolling pin) flat bread (rotla in Gujarati or bhakri in Marathi or roti in other languages). Another cereal grain popularly used in rural areas and by poor people to consume as staple in the form of roti or other forms is called ragi in Karnataka or naachanie in Maharashtra, with the popularly made ragi rotti in Kannada. Ragi mudde is a popular meal in southern India. In Telugu, it is called రాగులు(చోళ్ళు) (Ragulu or Chollu). Ragi is dark like rye, but rougher in texture.

Millet porridge is a traditional food in Russian, German and Chinese сuisines. In Russia, it is eaten sweet (with milk and sugar added at the end of the cooking process) or savoury with meat or vegetable stews. In China, it is eaten without milk or sugar, frequently with beans, sweet potato, and/or various types of squash; millet soup or xiao xiao mi jian bing. It is eaten as a crepe only or with vegetables and sauce. The flour can also be mixed with corn and wheat flour to make bread called xiao mi mantou. In the field, millet is referred to as gu zi. In Germany, it is also eaten sweet (boiled in water with apples added during the boiling process and honey added during the cooling process).

Per capita consumption of millets, as food, varies in different parts of the world. It is highest in western Africa. In the Sahel region, millet is estimated to account for about 35% of total cereal food consumption in Burkina Faso, Chad and the Gambia. In Mali and Senegal, millets constitute roughly 40 percent of total cereal food consumption per capita, while in Niger and arid Namibia it is over 65% (See Mahangu). Other countries in Africa where millets are a significant food source include Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda. Millet is also an important food item for the population living in the drier parts of many other countries, especially in eastern and central Africa, and in the northern coastal countries of western Africa. In developing countries outside Africa, millet has local significance as a food in parts of some countries, such as China, India, Myanmar and North Korea.^[3]

The use of millets as food has been falling on per capita basis, between the 1970s and the 2000s, both in urban and rural areas, as developing countries such as India have experienced rapid economic growth and witnessed a significant increase in per capita consumption of other cereals.^[2]

People with coeliac disease can replace certain gluten-containing cereals in their diets with millet.

Millets are also used as bird and animal feed.

Alcoholic beverages[link]

Millets are traditionally important grains used in brewing millet beer in some cultures, for instance by the Tao people of Orchid Island, Taiwan, and, along with sorghum, by various peoples in East Africa. It is also the base ingredient for the distilled liquor rakshi in Nepal and the indigenous alcoholic drink of the Sherpa, Tamang, Rai and Limbu people, tongba, in eastern Nepal. In Balkan countries, especially Romania and Bulgaria, millet is used to prepare the fermented drink boza.

Other uses[link]

Millet, along with birdseed, is commonly used as fillings for juggling beanbags.

Millet is widely popular as a treat/food for domesticated pet parakeets/budgerigars.

Nutrition[link]

Millets, like sorghum, are predominantly starchy. The protein content is comparable to that of wheat and maize. Pearl and little millet are higher in fat, while finger millet contains the lowest fat. Barnyard millet has the lowest carbohydrate content and energy value. Millets are also relatively rich in iron and phosphorus. The bran layers of millets are good sources of B-complex vitamins. However, millets also feature high fiber content and poor digestibility of nutrients, which severely limit their value in nutrition and influence their consumer acceptability.^[3]

Finger millet has the highest calcium content among all the foodgrains, but it is not highly assimilable.

The protein content in millet is very close to that of wheat; both provide about 11% protein by weight, on a dry matter basis.

Millets are rich in B vitamins (especially niacin, B₆ and folic acid), calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. Millets contain no gluten, so they are not suitable for raised bread. When combined with wheat, (or xanthan gum for those who have celiac disease), they can be used for raised bread. Alone, they are suited for flatbread.

As none of the millets are closely related to wheat, they are appropriate foods for those with celiac disease or other forms of allergies/intolerance of wheat. However, millets are also a mild thyroid peroxidase inhibitor and probably should not be consumed in great quantities by those with thyroid disease.

Comparison with other major staple foods[link]

A pearl millet spike, near a farm in Zimbabwe

The following table shows the nutrient content of millet compared to major staple foods in a raw form. Raw forms, however, are not edible and cannot be fully digested. These must be prepared and cooked as appropriate for human consumption. In processed and cooked form, the relative nutritional and antinutritional contents of each of these grains is remarkably different from that of raw forms reported in this table. The nutrition value in cooked form depends on the cooking method.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Crawford, Gary W. (1983). Paleoethnobotany of the Kameda Peninsula. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. ISBN 0-932206-95-6. 
• Crawford, Gary W. (1992). "Prehistoric Plant Domestication in East Asia". In Cowan C.W., Watson P.J. The Origins of Agriculture: An International Perspective. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 117–132. ISBN 0-87474-990-5. 
• Crawford, Gary W. and Gyoung-Ah Lee (2003). "Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula". Antiquity 77 (295): 87–95. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Millet

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Millet.

• "Millets". Alternative Field Crops Manual. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/millet.html. 
• "Vegetarians in Paradise: Millet History, Millet Nutrition, Millet Recipe". http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch29.html. 
• "AboutMillet.com - Complete resource for millet health benefits, recipes and cooking tips". http://www.aboutmillet.com. 

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (February 2009)

Richard Millet is a French author. He was born in Viam, Corrèze in 1953. He spent part of his childhood in Lebanon and now lives in Paris. In 1994 he won the Essay Prize from the Académie Française for his book Le Sentiment de la langue (“The Feeling of Language”).

His work revolves around themes of time, death and language and is not without a certain Proustian quality. His prose style has a richness and complexity that could be said to belong to a French tradition spanning from Bossuet to Claude Simon. Its rhythmic quality also gives it an elegance reminiscent of Marguerite Yourcenar.

Several of his novels are set in the village of Siom (Viam’s literary counterpart), including La Gloire des Pythre (“The Glory of the Pythres”), L'Amour des trois sœurs Piale (“The Love of the Three Piale Sisters”), Lauve le pur (“Lauve the Pure”), and Ma vie parmi les ombres (“My Life Among the Shadows”). More generally, the Plateau de Millevaches - its landscape, climate, geographic location and the evolution of the lives of its inhabitants over the course of the century - is an essential element in his work, as Haute-Provence was for Giono, the county of Yoknapatawpha for Faulkner or Wessex for Thomas Hardy.

Millet mixes religious elements with coarse language, evoking the French Catholic tradition in a way that acknowledges the modern sexual revolution. Desire, suffering and evil are themes that permeate all of his work.

He is also an editor at Gallimard, where he played a decisive role in the publication of Jonathan Littell's novel Les Bienveillantes, which won the 2006 Prix Goncourt.

The September 2007 publication of Désenchantement de la littérature, in which he denounces the inanity of contemporary French literature and the loss of religious feeling in the West, generated a good deal of controversy.^[1]

Works[link]

• L'Invention du corps de saint Marc, POL (1983)
• L'Innocence, POL (1984)
• Sept passions singulières, POL (1985)
• Le plus haut miroir, Fata Morgana (1986)
• Le Sentiment de la langue I, Champ Vallon (1986)
• Beyrouth, Champ Vallon (1987), repris dans Un Balcon à Beyrouth, followed by Beyrouth ou la séparation, La Table Ronde (2005)
• L'Angélus, POL (1988) and "Folio" (2001)
• La Chambre d'ivoire, POL (1989) and "Folio" (2001)
• Le Sentiment de la langue II, Champ Vallon (1990)
• Laura Mendoza, POL (1991)
• Accompagnement, POL (1991)
• L'Ecrivain Sirieix, POL (1992), "Folio" (2001)
• Le Chant des adolescentes, POL (1993)
• Le Sentiment de la langue, I, II, III, La Table Ronde (1993 and 2003)
• Un Balcon à Beyrouth, La Table Ronde (1994 et 2005)
• Cœur blanc, POL (1994)
• La Gloire des Pythre, POL (1995), "Folio" (1997)
• L'Amour mendiant, POL (1996), "Folio" (2007)
• L'Amour des trois sœurs Piale, POL (1997), "Folio" (1999)
• Cité perdue, Fata Morgana (1998)
• Le Cavalier siomois, Editions François Janaud (1998), La Table Ronde (2004)
• Autres jeunes filles (with illustrations by Ernest Pignon-Ernest), Editions François Janaud (2000)
• Lauve le pur, POL (2000), "Folio" (2001)
• La Voix d'alto, Gallimard (2001), "Folio" (2003)
• Le Renard dans le nom, Gallimard (2003), "Folio" (2004)
• Ma vie parmi les ombres, Gallimard (2003), "Folio" (2005)
• Fenêtre au crépuscule. Conversation avec Chantal Lapeyre-Desmaison, La Table Ronde (2004)
• Musique secrète, Gallimard (2004)
• Pour la musique contemporaine, Fayard (2004)
• Le Dernier écrivain, Fata Morgana (2005)
• Harcèlement littéraire. Entretiens avec Delphine Descaves et Thierry Cecille, Gallimard (2005)
• Le Goût des femmes laides, Gallimard (2005), "Folio" (2007)
• Sacrifice, on the photographs of Silvia Seova, L'Archange Minotaure (2006)
• Dévorations, Gallimard (2006)
• L'Art du bref, Gallimard, (2006)
• Place des Pensées. Sur Maurice Blanchot, Gallimard (2007)
• Petit éloge d'un solitaire, Gallimard, "Folio" (2007)
• L'Orient désert, Mercure de France (2007)
• Désenchantement de la littérature, Gallimard (2007)

Critical Studies[link]

• Sylviane COYAULT-DUBLANCHET, La Province en héritage. Pierre Michon, Pierre Bergounioux, Richard Millet, Genève, Droz, 2002, 289 p.
• Jean-Yves LAURICHESSE, Richard Millet. L'invention du pays, Amsterdam - New York, Rodopi, 2007, 276 p.

External links[link]

• Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)

Notes[link]

1. ^ see for example an article by Patrick Kéchichian, published in le Monde (in French).